An immigrant activist claims ICE is targeting her for deportation, with the help of the state's Department of Licensing.
For the second day in a row, minority rights advocates held a press conference outside a DOL office, demanding the director resign.
Maru Mora Villalpando lobbied for the governor's executive order last year that prohibited state agencies from assisting federal immigration agents.
Thursday she stood outside the Bellingham DOL office with other immigrant rights activists.
She posted documents on a website as proof that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) requested and received her driver's license information from DOL in December, despite having no warrant for her arrest.
She said ICE contacted her soon afterward to schedule a deportation hearing.
Mora Villalpando is an outspoken activist who protested against the Dakota Access Pipeline and deporting undocumented immigrants.
She has been open and public with her own undocumented status, but she believes ICE is targeting her for another reason.
"This is not about undocumented or documented," she said. "This is about human beings that don't agree with this administration and this administration is willing to go as far as it can to silence them. That is why ICE has become Trump's police. They are becoming an apparatus of political oppression."
DOL provided her copies of her driver's license information the state agency shared with the feds. But in an email, the DOL claimed "in spite of multiple search attempts we have not been able to recover everything. We do not have a record fo the request that came from ICE for your information."
Mora Villalpando can't help feel that DOL is covering up for ICE.
She says because the public trust has been broken, she believes the head of the state agency needs to step down.
DOL has not responded directly to Mora Villalpando's claims but in a statement last night, the director, Pat Kohler, said she is implementing changes to make sure this doesn't happen again.
One of her deputy directors already stepped down.
Meanwhile, ICE spokesperson Yasmeen Pitts O'Keefe released the following response:
“Ms. Mora-Villalpando is a Mexican national who violated the terms of her nonimmigrant status in the United States. In accordance with federal law, ICE issued her a notice to appear in December 2017, and her immigration case is ongoing.
DHS will not exempt classes or categories of removable aliens from potential enforcement. All those in violation of the immigration laws may be subject to enforcement proceedings, up to and including removal from the United States.”
